Andrew, thank you for the clarification. I had an American audience in mind when I wrote my comments. Sam Harris is also speaking primarily to Americans and he has influenced much of the recent conversation on this blog. I agree that the situation is very different for Britain, much of continental Europe and Australia.

But this is my point exactly–atheists are a beleaguered minority in a religious nation, and are perceived by the American public as immoral trolls who want to go around spitting on their most cherished beliefs.

I don’t think that American atheists should hide their unbelief–quite the opposite! This is one of the reasons why I’ve currently adopted ‘atheist’ as my primary label, rather than ‘skeptic’ or ‘secular humanist.’ But I think that they should be strategic in picking their battles. Their energy would be better spent allying with those who have a common appreciation for science and the separation of church and state, and together attacking the Christianists and creationists who dominate our government.

Dawkins is a Brit speaking in a country where most people are either out-and-out athiests or profoundly irreligious.

He is showing American athiests that they shouldn’t hide their lack of faith or be embarassed or ashamed of it. This sort of milque-toast posturing where you seek an alliance with liberal Christians is ridiculous.

If you are promoting a more liberal agenda then your faith or lack of it should be irrelevant. Just work together for a common cause and belief or non-belief be damned.

You are letting yourself be pushed into a closet.

And if gays were brave enough to push back when there really is a visceral hatred and disgust toward homosexuality among many people, then you should be able to the same.

I’m a former conservative mormon (still somewhat mormon, though) who now sees himself as an agnostic. I have recently found huge amounts of respect and admiration for the atheistic community. A couple of podcasts that have helped me a ton can be found here via iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=107197049

i highly recommend them to all my friends who are still ignorant to the fact that atheists are the greatest peeps in the world (most empathetic, “non-judgemental”, etc.) Check out these podcasts (and don’t forget to check out an Atheist’s Prayer, too!)

[NOTE: If the link above does not work, you need to have iTunes installed on your computer, then click on music store, then podcasts, then do a search for "mormon musings" and download the two episodes available on the subject of atheism. Episode titles are:
What's more dangerous, atheism or religion?
and
Why does God hate amputees?

One of the podcasters is the creator of the site Howstuffworks.com, and another is the creator of godisimaginary.com and whydoesgodhateamputees.com]

Thank you for believing that such an alliance is possible, and giving me and others like me the benefit of the doubt – “Christianity” has such a sordid history – I could never in good conscience defend it, and thus I understand very well Watt’s uneasiness. Watt- believe me, I truly hate “religious” Christianity.

John – You are right that I do not share the values that my extremist brothers do (Calvinists, Bible literalists, ultra-conservatives, orthodox believers, theocracy pushers, etc.) If I one day truly believed that the God they believed in was the real one, I would be an atheist at that very same moment – for their god is more demonic than divine. Pretty much all of my anger is aimed at these people and not the non-Christian. Although very angry atheists that want to purge the world of believers make me queasy, I figure more moderate atheists make better opponents of them then I would.

I can say all this with complete ease, but I guess that is because I subscribe to a very unique and I would venture to say “rational” approach to Bible interpretation. I should probably write about it sometime.

Anyway, thanks again for the post. This is a great bridge to build. I’m definitely on board.

I realize that one can be angry at religion for the pain it has brought to cultures and individuals. I also realize that anger sells books, but it does not create healthy societies.

After reading chpts 3-4 (this morning) of “The End of Faith” I’m just way happy that I live in a liberal democracy and post 1945! Let’s keep it that way.

John,

Thank you for the follow-on link.

I suppose that the only believers that would consider such an un-holy alliance are the most liberally minded. And even then I suspect that it would be of an “enemy of my enemy” nature. But I agree that we should take advantage of this unique moment to build bridges. Nothing like working toward a common goal for erasing ignorance and bigotry on both sides.

Harris and Dawkins have chosen to play the role of destroyers, which makes our role as creators all the more able…I think.

My respect to atheistic politicians, if there are any.